ACMI + RMIT Audience Lab
Got a moving image project in development? Looking for constructive feedback?
The ACMI + RMIT Audience Lab invites game developers, filmmakers, moving image artists, emerging tech developers and individual creators to showcase their projects or products at ACMI and gather audience feedback.
A skills workshop delivered in partnership with RMIT is provided for all participants to share tools for getting the most out of the feedback they receive about their projects.
EOIs for our next Audience Lab on Sat 7 June 2025 are now closed.
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Launched in 2018, the ACMI + RMIT Audience Lab has become an important industry pathway for developing, experimenting, and testing new works. Collaborating with ACMI’s diverse audiences, creators are offered a unique opportunity to engage face-to-face with museum visitors and receive real time feedback.
For audiences, this is a special chance to peek behind the creative curtain and see the process of game development and media production. By becoming playtesters, audiences help to contribute to the development of new screen works.
ACMI + Audience Lab alumni have achieved major industry success including: Australian Game Developer Awards, Game of the Year (Cult of the Lamb); D.I.C.E Awards, Game of the Year (Untitled Goose Game); Apple Design Awards (The Gardens Between); SXSW Sydney Showcase Selection (Gubbins).
By the numbers:
- 20+ ACMI + RMIT Audience Labs held since 2018
- 100+ projects playtested by more than 6,000 visitors
- 40+ awards and nominations for ACMI + RMIT Audience Lab projects
We love the moving image and are very open to different types of products eg. Dual channel video artwork, short form content developed for YouTube, interactive VR/AR. We are also interested in products that are at different stages in the development process eg. storyboards and scripts right through to final edits.
In addition to free use of the space, the Audience Lab program includes:
- A workshop on experience design for testing, and how to get the most mileage out of your research
- Operational support for your staff on the testing day
- Access to a range of audiovisual equipment
- Marketing support for the testing days
Projects tested out at past Audience Labs
Untitled Goose Game
From Chrissy Teigen to Blink-182, House House's game about a pesky goose took the world by storm in 2019.
The Gardens Between
"Getting feedback from ACMI's audience was vital in finishing The Gardens Between." – Simon Joslin, The Voxel Agents
Gubbins
Gubbins is an awarding winning puzzle game where you place tiles to construct words, with the help and hindrance from weird little pals called Gubbins. Minimalist typography alongside mischievous cartoons serve as a kooky canvas for moreish wordplay.
Major Research Partner
Projects and Partnerships
We have been working closely with the screen sector and small-to-medium creatives since 2015, providing access to a range of resources, programming and connection to industry.
